Today's communication networks provide transport of voice, video and data to both residential and commercial customers, with more and more of those customers being connected by fiber optic cables. In these communication networks, information is transmitted from one location to another by sending pulses of light through the fiber optic cables. Fiber optic transmission provides several advantages over electrical transmission techniques, such as increased bandwidth and lower losses.
Fiber optic cables are often routed in narrow spaces of buildings (e.g., ducts) using microduct fiber tubes. Each microduct fiber tube may contain a number of jacketed fiber optic cables, which in turn contain a number of optical fibers. These interior fiber optic cables are protected by a cylindrical tube. The cylindrical tube is durable and protects the interior fibers from damaging environmental conditions, such as corners and other objects present inside the walls or ducts of a building. Microduct fiber tubes come in a variety of diameters, such as 8.5 mm (millimeters), 10.0 mm, 12.7 mm and 16 mm.
In many cases, installers use hardware to secure microduct fiber tubes together and/or to a flat surface, such as a wall. This hardware is typically secured at a location that is in close proximity to where the fibers exiting the fiber tubes enter a splice enclosure. This type of arrangement provides organization and an anchor point for the microduct tubes so as to prevent unwanted tension from being applied to the fiber tubes.
One hardware solution for installers of microduct fiber tubes is a stackable plate system that layers rows of microduct fiber tubes on top of another. These plates can be secured to the desired area. However, there are many drawbacks to this solution that make installation difficult and/or costly. For example, known stackable plate designs are tailored to the diameter of only one microduct fiber tube. Thus, if an installer wishes to use two different tube diameters (which is not uncommon), he or she must carry plates for each diameter. Furthermore, this solution is not space efficient, as each layer will typically have a number of unused slots. Furthermore, known stackable plate designs must be staggered on top of one another, with each successive layer laterally extending further than the previous one. This staggering is required so that there is adequate clearance to secure the plates together by a screw or other fastener. However, this staggering reduces space efficiency because of the lateral extension that each additional layer requires. Furthermore, known stackable plate designs are susceptible to bowing in which the pressure exerted on the plate by the microduct fiber tubes (which is necessary to ensure a secure connection) warps the plate, in particular at locations of the plate that are maximally spaced apart from the fasteners. Due to this bowing effect, the microduct fiber tubes may come loose from the plates.